Tri-Valley's Adam Bice runs down the field after intercepting the ball during Friday night's game against Louisville at Woody Hayes Quaker Stadium in New Philadelphia. / MATTHEW LEASURE/Tribune

Written by

DAVE WEIDIG

Staff Writer

Tri-Valley players and coaches comfort each other after Friday night's loss to Louisville in the Division II, Region 7 semifinal football playoff game at Woody Hayes Quaker Stadium in New Philadelphia. / MATTHEW LEASURE/Tribune

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NEW PHILADELPHIA - Louisville, known for its explosive spread offense, instead found itself in a second-half defensive dogfight with Tri-Valley's Dawgs.

The Leopards, the highest-scoring team in Stark County, didn't score a point over the final two quarters against the determined Scotties. But three times they turned away Tri-Valley in the red zone, including twice in the third quarter, and held off the heavy underdogs for a 22-13, Division II regional semifinal win at Woody Hayes Quaker Stadium.

The second-seeded Leopards (10-2) advanced to the regional finals against top-ranked Columbus DeSales, a 27-10 winner over Canfield. But not without getting quite a fight from the Scotties (10-2), which lost 42-0 to a Lake team that was ousted 34-21 last weekend by this same Louisville club.

Tri-Valley intercepted Leopards' quarterback Neal Seaman three times, one of them returned 62 yards for a touchdown by Wade Warner with 9:37 left in the game to pull the Scotties within 22-13. But Zach Dearinger's kick was blocked, making it a two-possession game. Warner picked off another pass later at his 21. However, the Dawgs could never get into scoring position again.

Most of the drama occurred earlier in the game, which saw Louisville grab a 14-0 lead by piecing together 57 and 84-yard drives which ate up much of the first quarter. Seaman threw a 2-yard TD pass to Tyler Jones on the first one, with the kick blocked, and a 29-yarder on fourth-and-6 to Tyler Adkins. On a razzle dazzle PAT play, wideout Bob Swigert threw a reverse pass to Brandon Mathie for two and a 14-0 lead.

The first drive was aided by a questionable pass interference penalty in the end zone on Tri-Valley.

Louisville looked to be off to the races, but Tri-Valley had other ideas.

West hit Warner on a crossing pattern and the senior wideout

galloped 67 yards into the end zone at 11:50 of the second quarter. Dearinger's kick suddenly made it 14-7.

Shortly later, defensive end Adam Bice, playing with a dislocated finger and hip flexor injury suffered in practice, made a one-handed interception of Seaman on a screen pass and rumbled to the Leopards' 19. But West, under heavy pressure most of the night, was hit as he threw and Mathie intercepted at the 5 to end the tying threat.

Louisville then went on a 78-yard drive, converting a fake punt on fourth-and-1 and Seaman hooking up with Adkins for 37 yards to the Tri-Valley 12. Marcus Poyser capped it with a 3-yard TD run at 6:30, with holder Swigert taking a high snap on the PAT and running it around right end for what would be Louisville's final points of the night and a 22-7 lead.

The Scotties stormed back with West hitting Clay Cameron, who laterally to Warner for a 17-yard gain on a hook and ladder play. West found Cameron for 25 and Warner for 15 to the Louisville 13. But West was sacked for 10 yards in losses and on fourth down, Warner appeared to be interfered with over the middle, but no flag was thrown as the threat died.

Tri-Valley dominated the third quarter with two long drives, but came away empty both times.

West connected with Warner on gains of 20 and 19 as the Scotties moved to the Louisville 11. But West was sacked again and his fourth down pass fell incomplete.

On the next possession, West found Warner for 19 and Ross Allison for 15 as Tri-Valley marched into position at the Leopards' 26. But Swigert intercepted West in the end zone on the Scotties' last threat of the night.

West had run for 183 yards in the regional quarterfinal win at Logan. But Louisville changed up its defense to take that away and force West - without Ryan Householder (broken ankle) and Taylor Trout (illness) as receivers - to go almost exclusively to the air.

"We had seen them use mostly four-man fronts against the spread, and they went to a five-man look," West said. "It screwed with our blocks, but our offensive line still did a great job."

"Their coach had said in the paper they were trying to take away Cam's running, so I can't say it surprised me they went with the five-man front," said Tri-Valley coach Justin Buttermore. "They brought their linebackers up and basically had seven in the box, so we had to rely on the passing game.

"Their defense was a lot faster than people gave them credit for. Their defensive ends gave us problems all night."

"We knew we had to move the ball in the second half, and we did," Bice said. "Give Louisville credit. They're a great team and were able to stop us in the red zone."

Tri-Valley in turn made some defensive adjustments at halftime. Seaman, who threw for 198 first-half yards, finished with 256 and the three interceptions.

"We made adjustments on the defensive line and in the secondary," Bice said.

"We came in wanting to take away their run and the deep routes; the second half we decided to take away the shorter routes," Buttermore said.

Despite being under constant siege, West hit on 14 of 34 passes for 236 yards, with Warner hauling in eight for 157 yards.

"No one gave us a chance," Buttermore said. "If it weren't for some missed opportunities, it was a game we could have won. We told the kids coming in, 'trust in the other 10 games' (and not the loss to Lake). They did, and we were right there, just like we knew we could be."